Humanverse

Jan vs Janeen

American parents have registered 76,934 Jans since 1880, against 6,544 Janeens. Jan is still ahead, with 52 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Jan against Janeen, 1880 to 2025 0 1k 2k 3k 4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Jan Janeen

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Jan has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1902 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1981, when Jan had 281 and Janeen had 182.

Side by side

  Jan Janeen
Total US births 76,9346,544
Most in one year 3,761272
Babies in 2025 52under 5
Estimated living today 57,0005,700
Median age today 6755
Peak year 19561970
Best rank 136th girls625th girls
Rank in 2025 14,942ndunranked
First recorded 19021930
Girls / boys 54,531 / 22,4036,544 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Jans alive today are over 67; half the Janeens are over 55. That is 12 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Jan and Janeen.